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Chinese poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in China. Traditionally, it is divided...

Chinese poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in China. Traditionally, it is divided into shi (詩), ci (詞) and qu (曲). There is also a kind of prose-poem called fu (賦). During the modern period, there also has developed free verse in Western style. All traditional forms of Chinese poetry are rhymed, but not all rhymed texts in ancient China are classified as poetry - for instance, lines from I Ching are often rhymed, but it is not considered poetry. (Compare the Pre-Socratic philosophical works in ancient Greece which are in the form of poetry.) There could have been a number of important anthologies of early poetry in ancient China, but since the burning of books by Qin Shihuang, the earliest extant anthologies are the Shi Jing and Chu Ci, dating to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, respectively. Shi Jing (詩經 "Classic of Poetry") was the first major surviving collection of Chinese poems, collecting both aristocratic poems (Odes) and more rustic poetry, probably derived from folksongs (Songs). They are mostly composed of four-character (四言) lines. A second, more lyrical and romantic anthology was Chu Ci (楚辭 "Songs of Chu"), made up primarily of